What I Would Tell My 2011 Self: Stop Waiting to Be Right
by Brian Rutherford
Looking back, one of the biggest mistakes I made as a leader was believing I needed to be right before I could move.
That mindset was baked into me early. School rewarded having the right answer. Ministry culture reinforced it. There was an unspoken expectation that the leader should know what to do, and if I didn't know yet, the responsible thing was to wait until I did.
So I waited.
I waited to launch new initiatives until I was convinced they would succeed. I waited to make decisions until I had gathered just a little more information. I waited to cast vision until I felt like I had every question covered.
The problem was that while I was waiting, everyone else was waiting too.
Most of the time my team was patient. Occasionally, after we had built enough trust, someone would move forward anyway. More often than not, it worked. Ministry moved ahead. People were served. The church benefited.
I just wasn't the one leading it.
For years I assumed good leadership meant having clarity before taking action. Experience has taught me something different. Clarity usually doesn't come before the work. It comes because of the work.
The Bible tells that story over and over again.
The church in Corinth wasn't a model of polished leadership. It was messy. People divided into factions. They argued over spiritual gifts. They struggled with what it meant to live as the people of God. Paul wasn't writing to people who had figured it all out. He was writing to people who were moving forward while God continued to shape them.
The Old Testament tells the same story. Moses argued with God. Abraham lied about his wife. Jonah ran in the opposite direction. None of them had perfect clarity before they obeyed. They took imperfect steps, and God met them there.
We know this is true in everyday life too.
Before our oldest child was born, my wife and I decided to remodel our kitchen. We certainly didn't have every detail figured out before we started. We ran into surprises, changed plans, and solved problems we never saw coming. But there was a deadline, there was a purpose, and we kept moving.
No one would have advised us to wait until every decision was made before picking up the first tool.
Yet that's exactly how I led my church for years.
I've come to believe that's one of the biggest misconceptions about alignment. Alignment isn't everyone agreeing on every detail before taking a step. It's a group of people committed to the same mission, trusting each other enough to move forward together even while they're still learning.
If I could sit down with my 2011 self, I wouldn't tell him to study harder or think longer.
I'd tell him to lean into the mission.
I'd tell him to trust his team and the process.
I'd tell him that movement creates clarity.
And I'd remind him that God has never been limited by leaders who don't have every answer. In fact, Scripture is filled with them.
That's one of the reasons I was drawn to Intentional Churches. Alignment isn't a buzzword here. It's the work we do every day. We help leadership teams stop waiting for perfect clarity and start moving together toward the mission God has already given them.
If your church has been waiting for the right plan, the right moment, or the right answer, maybe the next step isn't finding more certainty.
Maybe it's finding alignment.
One of the best things about working with Intentional Churches is that we get to gather with leaders in person every year. The IC Conference is May 5 and 6, 2027, in Chicago, IL. If that sounds like your kind of room, we hope to see you there. Learn more at intentionalchurchesconference.com.
